Jalandhar, March 6
Contemplating a strict action against all those marriage palaces which have not applied for regularisation, the Department of Housing and Urban Development has asked the authorities of the development concerned to issue closure notices to them.

A communique in this regard was received by officials of the Jalandhar Development Authority (JDA) today. The JDA officials have decided to start issuing individual notices to nearly 85 palaces from tomorrow onwards regarding stopping any further operation.

Of the total 188 palaces falling under the purview of the JDA in Jalandhar, Kapurthala and Hoshiarpur, nearly 103 had applied for regularisation so far by submitting various relevant documents as required by the new policy framed by the Punjab Government. As per the fresh orders, the palaces which have not applied will not be able to organise any function on their premises from now onwards.

Confirming the same, A Venu Prasad, Principal Secretary, Housing and Urban Development, said, “We have given sufficient time to the palaces to apply for regularisation by issuing public notices, conducting survey and even holding interaction with them in the office. We asked all of them to apply as per new guidelines. They have not applied since the past four months ever since we begun the exercise. We now believe that all these palace owners are not interested in running the business. So, we will not allow them to operate now.”

Jalandhar, March 6
If the district administration, education department, various school authorities and the transport department had been paying heed to the warnings in the form of past accidents involving schoolchildren before the Monday accident, they ideally should have been on their toes to avoid such accidents.

While it took 13 little lives for them to wake up, the district authorities have now asked both the district education and transport departments to compile a substantive list of the school transports, employed by all private schools.

Deputy Commissioner (DC) Shruti Singh has asked the District Education Officer (DEO) to submit the list to her within two days. Talking to The Tribune the DC said, “The DEO has been asked to compile a list of private schools in the district and the number of buses they are using. It will also include a list of drivers, whether they have driving licences or not, and whether the licences they hold are for commercial vehicles or not.”

The list will also include details about private operators being hired by schools to ferry children and all details about the vehicles and the state they are in.

The department has also been asked to gather information about the number of government schools' children who are bus pass holders and travel by government buses.

District Education Officer Neelam Kumari said, “While so far we do not have any transport details or list of drivers of schools, this task shall be entrusted to block officers, who will gather the information regarding private schools running in all the 19 blocks of the district. The last time we checked, there were no bus pass holding students in the district, but we are going to recheck that aspect again.”

Even as the information would aid the administration to have a vital database of school transport across the district, some areas have still been left unaddressed.

Across the city - in both government and private schools - students without driving licences openly bring their private vehicles to school, but so far neither the district administration nor the education department has taken any step to effectively put a stop to underage driving.

Meanwhile, the transport department and the traffic police have challaned and impounded many vehicles, including those of some reputed schools in the district, after the accident. The department, too, does not have any information on the drivers and the details of schools employing private operators.

District Transport Officer Dawinderjit Singh said, “As many as 600 buses are being used by schools directly to ferry students. But the transport office does not have details about the private operators employed by schools.”

He said, “Private operator details are something for the schools to check. We can only challan the ones flouting rules.”

The transport department also does not have details of the drivers or whether they have driving licence or not.

Phagwara, March 6
As many as 30 computers, LEDs, computer tables and entire furniture, worth lakhs of rupees, in the computer lab of Ramgarhia Polytechnic College were reduced to ashes in a devastating fire which broke in the lab last afternoon.

Fire tenders took more than one hour to extinguish the fire. A short-circuit in power lines was said to be the cause of fire. The exact loss could not be estimated till now. — OC

Jalandhar, March 6
Pakistani onyx marble, textiles, dry fruits from Kabul will be the main attractions for general public of the region in the first edition of the five-day Indo-Pak International Trade Expo to be organised by the PHD Chamber at Desh Bhagat Yadgar Hall.

Over 40 traders from Pakistan will exhibit their products like onyx marble, textiles, dry fruits, Kashmiri carpets, Jaipur jewellery, home appliances, wellness and healthcare products, high-end leather bags and crockery, quilts, besides wrought iron furniture and artificial flowers in the exhibition hall.

Apart from this, a special Pakistani food court will also offer mouth-watering eatables to the visitors. Pakistani folk singers will also entertain the visitors with their sufiana kalams.

Khursheed Barlas, CEO, Pakistan World Trade and Expo Centre, while appreciating the efforts of the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said they were even inviting the PHD Chamber of Punjab to participate with Pakistani entrepreneurs in their exhibitions being held in Mauritius and UK.

He said as the bilateral trade had a 66 per cent growth in the past year, these exhibitions would help to strengthen the business between the neighbouring countries and also the bilateral ties.

PHD Chamber regional director Dalip Sharma said the exhibition at Ludhiana last month had received a huge response from as many as 50,000 visitors that encouraged the traders of both the nation to go to other cities also.

The aim of the expo was not to generate profit but to build people-to-people connect, claimed Sharma.

Jalandhar, March 6
A mega event CT Half Marathon 2013- A Race for Charity, shall take place on March 10. Senior citizens, olympians, artists, players and physically-challenged persons have been invited to join the noble cause. The attempt on the part of CT Group has also encouraged the physically-challenged students from PRAYAS (A School for Special students) to participate in the race.

The marathon will be a step ahead in sharing and caring for humanity as the proceeds of the same will be shared with various organisations such as Pingalwara, Prayas School, Red Cross Society, School for Deaf and Dumb and Unique Home Society set up for marginalised sections of the society, who have been associated with us from the past several years. There will be a special 100m race for the students of ‘Prayas’ at CT Maqsudan Campus. Attractive prizes will be given to the winners for both male and female category and also to the students of Prayaas as a token of encouragement and appreciation.

Renowned Punjabi singer Pooja and Jassi Gill will join the marathon. They promised to participate in this run for charity. Special arrangements will be provided for security of runners. There will be first aid facility at every 2 km distance by students and staff of the CTIPS.

Mangi Mahal, a popular Punjabi folk singer and actor said, "I am overwhelmed to hear about CT Half Marathon - the annual mega event of the group which is an endeavour of the Group towards Corporate Social Responsibility."

Every year the CT Group organises a marathon from CT Shahpur Campus to CT Maqsudan Campus (distance of 21 km), the proceeds of which are shared with the marginalized sectors of the society.

The major attraction of the event is huge sum of cash prize for the winners .The first prize is for Rs 21,000, second prize is Rs 11,000, third prize is Rs 5,100 and 14 prizes of Rs 1100. the prizes are bothe for males and females. The other major attraction is the celebrities . Leading Punjabi Singers Jassi Gill, Raja Bath, Saarthi K, Zora Randhawa, Navjeet Kahlon, Nirmal Sidhu and comedian Umang Sharma will be performing after the completion of CT Half Marathon.

Harpreet Singh, vice-chairman, CT Group of Institutions, appreciated the efforts made by the celebrities and the students of ‘Prayas’ who has shown their interest to be a part of a social cause.

He said there was a real need to take care of the CSR (Corporate Social responsibility) activities by which we could give a message to the society to donate and to give hands to the physically-challenged persons.

Jalandhar, March 6
The ongoing development in language science and technology was discussed at a two-day national seminar, organised jointly by the Punjabi Department of Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU) and Linguistic Data Consortium for Indian Languages (LDCIL), Mysore, at GNDU's Regional Campus here today.

The Vice-Chancellor, GNDU, Prof Ajaib Singh Brar, inaugurated the seminar. Dr Gurpreet Singh Lehal, Director, Centre of Punjabi Language, Literature and Technical Development, Punjabi University, Patiala, spoke on the research work being done in the field of translation and speaking.

Dr L Ramamurthi, Project Head, of the LDCIL, gave a complete account of research programmes being run by the consortium.

Former Punjabi University Vice-Chancellor Dr Joginder Singh Puar, was the chief guest. Dr Puar, Dr Kamlesh Singh Duggal, Head of Department of Journalism, and Dr Sukhwinder Singh Sangha, Associate Dean and Head of Department of Punjabi of GNDU, shared their views with scholars and experts, including Dr Parminder Singh, Dr Kanwaljit Batra, Dr Rajwinder Singh, Dr CP Kamboj, Manjit Singh, Mohammad Yunus, Punam Dhillon, Prem Kumar and Sarbjit Kaur. All experts read out their papers on language development.

Jalandhar, March 6
Six couples from poor families tied the nuptial knot at a mass marriage ceremony organised by the Sukhi Bath Sewa Club, run by a Canada-based NRI and philanthropic Sukhi Bath, at Patara village, near here.

Attired in "sherwanis" and "lehngas" the couples reached the "mandap", set up at Bath’s residence, where the rituals of "Anand Karaj" were performed. The families of the brides and the grooms were ceremoniously welcomed at a local marriage palace. Besides clothes and jewellery, Bath distributed essential goods and household items worth Rs 1 lakh among each of the newlywed couple.